Over the past three years, the number of people aware of Bitcoin has grown by 30%, by 27% - who consider it a positive innovation, and by 29% - who trust it more than large banks. 43% of respondents (of which 59% are millennials) believe that bitcoin will be massively used over the next decade. At the same time, 44% of millennials believe they are likely to buy bitcoin in the next five years. This is the data from a recent study of the information platform The Tokenist. Experts analyzed the change in attitude towards Bitcoin that has occurred since 2017. The results are encouraging and inspire confidence in the early mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. DeCenter compared the data from several other surveys - they are not so encouraging, but also indicate an increase in confidence in digital assets.
The Tokenist Survey Methodology and Past Research
In April 2020, The Tokenist polled 4,852 people aged 18 to 65 from 17 countries. Researchers asked respondents the same questions as the authors of studies conducted by BlockChain Capital, BankRate, and eToro in 2017–2019.
BlockChain Capital Survey . In October 2017, more than 2,112 Americans over 18 were interviewed. Most of the data from this study was used by The Tokenist analysts to compare with the results of their own survey, which will be discussed later.
BankRate survey . In July 2018, the company surveyed 1,000 Americans over 18 years of age. The results showed that only 2% consider bitcoin and cryptocurrencies the best investment, and 32% preferred crypto assets as a stock.
Survey eToro . In April 2019, 1,000 Americans aged 20–65 were interviewed. The results of the study confirmed the conventional wisdom that millennials are the target audience of the cryptocurrency market. 43% of them said that they believe more in the cryptocurrency than in the stock market (among people over 30 years old, only 23% of them), 71% are willing to invest in cryptography through traditional financial institutions, half of the investors are considering adding digital currencies to pension savings.
The authors of this survey cite a similar study by Provoke Insights, in which 59% of American respondents, including the older generation, said they were ready to invest in cryptocurrencies if offered by traditional financial institutions. As you can see, American private investors have long regarded cryptocurrencies as a full-fledged asset, but they are ready to invest in it only subject to strict regulation and state protection.
The Tokenist analysts admit that the data is not complete. They rightly recognize the fragmentation and incompleteness of all available surveys, which is why they show such diverse data. Therefore, it is still difficult to get an accurate picture of the change in public opinion about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But The Tokenist experts are confident that their data reflects general trends.
The Tokenist Poll Results
Consider the main results that The Tokenist analysts obtained during the survey.
Over three years, the number of people who prefer bitcoin to traditional assets has increased. More than 45% of respondents would prefer to have bitcoin instead of stocks, real estate and gold - this is 13% more than in 2017. Moreover, among the millennials, their share is 92% - against 68% earlier.
From 30% to 61%, the number of people more or less familiar with bitcoin has increased, from 2% to 6% the number of respondents owning or owning it. Among millennials, the number of people familiar with the military-technical cooperation has grown from 42% to 78%, and coin owners from 4% to 14% (while 44% of millennials believe that they will buy a military-technical cooperation over the next five years). Even more strikingly, the number of people over 65 familiar with the military-technical cooperation increased by 51%. The authors of the study suggest that this is due to the growing mention of bitcoin in the media and the growing support for coins from the side of trade.
From 33% to 60%, the number of people who agree that Bitcoin is a positive innovation in financial technology has increased.
From 18% to 47%, the number of people trusting MTC more than large banks has increased. Among the polled millenials, there are 51%, and among older people, only 7%. Analysts at The Tokenist suggest that this increase in confidence in Bitcoin is due to increased adoption of the MTC and the recent stock market volatility.
Confidence that Bitcoin will become a widely used currency has increased over the past three years. The number of respondents (from 44% to 60% among millennials) who believe that most people will use bitcoin over the next decade has increased from 28% to 43%. These shifts are likely the result of increased support for the first cryptocurrency among retail companies and, above all, large retailers. However, at the same time, the respondents remain prejudiced about the nature of the first cryptocurrency. From 46% to 37%, the number of respondents who believe that bitcoin is a bubble has decreased. And among the millennials only 24% think so, and among the older generation - 50%.
In general, the authors of the survey rate its results as “amazing.” “ We found increased awareness and growing confidence in bitcoin among all the age and gender groups surveyed. This effect was most pronounced among respondents who were millennials ... ”, the document says.
The Tokenist analysts believe that the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented measures of economic support from the US Federal Reserve (US Federal Reserve) contributed to the growth of interest and confidence in Bitcoin on the part of the Americans . States are hard hit by the virus: unemployment rose from 3.5% in February (the lowest level for half a century) to 15% in April (record levels since the Great Depression).
The bear market does not reduce confidence in bitcoin
The Tokenist data is in good agreement with the Harris Poll survey. The company's analysts interviewed Americans in October 2017 and April 2019 and compared the figures. Here's how the number of respondents increased and their attitude to cryptocurrencies over two years:
Bitcoin awareness rose from 77% to 89%;
From 2% to 11%, the number of MTC owners increased;
From 34% to 43%, the number of respondents who consider Bitcoin a positive financial innovation has increased;
From 28% to 33%, the number of those who believe that bitcoin will be widely distributed over the next 10 years has increased;
From 19% to 27%, the number of respondents who believe that they will buy bitcoin in the next five years has increased.
Given that the first survey was conducted during the bull market, and the second at the bear market, the researchers were confident that they would note a decrease in confidence in bitcoin. However, despite the long bearish period, the positive sentiment regarding Bitcoin in the United States increased significantly in all age groups. But most of all, Bitcoin awareness and willingness to invest in it has grown among people aged 18 to 34 years.
Europeans are cautious about cryptocurrencies
In 2018, the ING Group, a Dutch financial conglomerate, surveyed nearly 15,000 people in the US, Europe, and Australia:
55% of respondents heard or were familiar with bitcoin, up to 10% owned or own cryptocurrencies (in Turkey - up to 18%).
35% of Europeans thought cryptocurrencies were the money of the future.
25% were going to buy cryptocurrency in the future.
23% were ready to use them in everyday spending.
At the same time, most preferred traditional assets to digital, 30% would never have invested in cryptocurrencies.
At the same time, the ING Group study, conducted in August 2019 and covering 12 countries, noted a weakening of people's faith in cryptocurrencies. The residents of Austria least trust Bitcoin - only 13% against 20% in 2018, despite the fact that the country took first place in terms of awareness of the first cryptocurrency. Only respondents from Turkey, Poland, and Romania were optimistic about digital assets. So, in Turkey, 62% of respondents are sure of the successful development of bitcoin and 30% are ready to receive a salary in it.
The bitFlyer Europe exchange polled 10,000 Europeans from 10 countries in 2019 and 2020 . Over the year, the number of people who are confident that cryptocurrencies will not go anywhere in the next 10 years has increased from 63% to 66%. At the same time, only 49% believe in the long existence of bitcoin, and only 7% believe in its use for investment.
Institutionals recognize cryptocurrencies as assets
In 2017, institutions almost did not care about digital assets. It is noteworthy that, according to a survey of the brokerage firm Triad Securities, conducted in November 2017, 39% of institutional traders considered bitcoin a bubble that would inevitably burst. But the development of the market has changed everything - the interest of the largest investors in cryptocurrencies is steadily growing.
So, according to the results of a recent survey of Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency unit of Fidelity Investments, conducted from November 2019 to March 2020:
80% of 774 American and European investors surveyed consider cryptocurrency an attractive investment asset;
60% believe that digital assets may be in their portfolios;
Currently, 27% of investors from the United States and 45% of investors from Europe are investing in them.
It is noteworthy that 25% of European investors have a positive attitude to the fact that some digital assets are free from government intervention, while among American investors only 10%. A survey conducted by Fidelity a year earlier (not including European investors) showed that cryptocurrencies were also considered attractive by about 80% of the investors surveyed, 47% thought that they should be in their portfolios, but owned only 22% of them.
In 2018, Fidelity interviewed 905 institutional investors from 25 countries, and 80% of them hoped that by 2025, blockchain and similar technologies will dramatically change the industry.
Unlike ordinary users and people far from the crypto world, it is much easier to track changes in the attitude of institutions to digital currencies. Over the past three years, a regulated market has appeared for them, and infrastructure is developing: financial companies are racing to launch platforms and services for institutions, custodial services have appeared , in pursuit of customers, companies are fighting for the role of the prime prime broker of the industry , the volume of institutional investments is growing , there are many reliable ways to buy a MTC, the question of launching a crypto-ETF has repeatedly been raised.
Institutional investors themselves have ceased to regard bitcoin as a bubble - now it is a tool to diversify portfolios in a crisis and hedge inflation risks.
Finally
The above data inspire optimism regarding the massive adoption of cryptocurrencies. Young people under 30, as well as people with higher education and stable income, are the most loyal and interested audience of digital assets. As regulatory problems are resolved and traditional financial companies enter the cryptocurrency market, they will use cryptocurrencies and invest more in them.
It is also important that faith in the traditional financial system has been weakening for more than 10 years in a row, and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this process. Bitcoin, born of a wave of disappointment in the banking system, as well as other cryptocurrencies, can become the main beneficiaries of this trend.
But the most eloquent of all is the increase in confidence in cryptocurrencies, the number of their users says.
